Reflections on an event worth noting

So, um, scary week at school.

We had a safe school violation. What that means is that a student had a weapon on campus. There were 7 cops at the school, which has less than 500 students. Students were being pulled for investigation, the student in question was kept in lockdown, and no one would tell us teachers what was going on. All I knew was that I came out of my room at the end of lunch and there are cops literally swarming around this room where I later found out they were holding the student. We (the teachers) knew we had to get the students back to the classrooms fast, but we had no idea why the cops were there and if we were in any danger. I was freaking out, though on the outside I didn't show it. I locked the classroom door and tried to have class as normal.

Here's what I do know: there was a student who had a knife in his backpack that he was intending to use that day. For the past month, he and several other students have been composing a hit list containing students and teachers. The list had a trap planned to get the people on the list and even had pictures of what some of the people would look like once they were stabbed. The student who had the knife was expelled. The others (who all apparently thought it was some big joke) got a stern talking to by the cops, nothing else.

I'm still internalizing all of this. This is me, so I'm sure you've already assumed that I cried (which I did 3 times actually). This isn't okay with me and although I never felt endangered, I don't know if I was or not. Things like this aren't supposed to happen at a charter school in West Jordan, Utah. I guess it's like Jonas, the main character in The Giver, realized: it's not just "only us, only now." Stuff like this happens all around us, and I suppose it's a matter of time before each person is touched by something he or she thought only happened Elsewhere, to others.